Christmas Carols and Grasshoppers

With an all night rain, we have grasshoppers. That was our first all-night rain and it rained off and on most of the day on Tuesday. Large green grasshoppers have invaded the campus. They come out of nests in the ground and fly without concern for their own (or other's) safety. They invaded Dale's office. He invited a group of kids in to collect them as we found many folks on campus collecting the bugs in jars and bottles. This one wanted to check his e-mail.

Apparently, the locals fry and eat these things and they told us that soon the market would have piles of them for sale. Hmmm!

The evening event was a Carol Service at the Iringa Christian Fellowship. We filled the little Anglican chapel, sang songs, had a little Christmas play about "the Greatest Gift Ever" and ended in candle light. It was fun and probably the last time we will see many of these folks as they head off for the holidays.

Just a few new tunes to old favorite Christmas hymns and a room full of wiggly kids but it was a great Christmas program.

The rain is supposed to clear today, but it is still cloudy and the temperature plummeted all the way down to 64 F (burrr!). We have 3 nights of dinner invitations so our cooking has ground to a halt. Carrie and Sharon are trying to figure how to make it without too many trips to the market. What we don't use we can always give to the neighbors

After two months of waiting, Radio Furaha is on the Internet. They are streaming through a free streaming service. You can find them at furaha.listen2myradio.com. Our hope is that others around the world will be able to listen in and keep in touch with Radio Furaha. We have significant interest from folks in the U.S. and will have to see how things go. Most of the programming is in Swahili, but they broadcast some English interview and church service programs. This radio station is due to the hard work of many, especially Pastor Paul Harris of Easter Lutheran.

Since you are all sleeping away, I decided to add a little more to the blog this morning. The rain has gone and it is partly cloudy. I am banished to my office in the New Science Building. The hammering and crashing continues two floors above. We are supposed to use these offices, but I not sure if it good for my sanity nor my safety. Anyway, on the way to school this morning Dale and I saw this.

Yes, that is a 40 lb bag of rice on his head. Just another interesting site along the road to the University. And no, we didn't hit him with the truck. Dale slowed down so I could get this shot. We have interesting sites all along this daily trip and it is just too bad I haven't a video camera running the whole time. We often have to stop for goats, chickens, cattle or donkeys crossing the road. We rate the trip as a 3 donkey, 2 chicken day. Today no chickens, no goats, no nothing. By the way, the hill off to the left on this picture washes out onto the road during the heavy rains. In the morning after the rain, city workers are out sweeping off the sand and digging out the sand that builds up in the roadside ditch. Erosion of this area is a significant problem and I wonder how long until the houses start to follow the sand down the hill. A once nice view overlooking the city will become a nice view of traffic in a few years. There is no pavement (called tarmac here) in the residential areas and the roads even to the nicest houses are passable only in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. City planning is nonexistent.